Journey
by corrupted-innocent
Summary: ON HIATUS. Star Trek/ Star Wars crossover, all OCs so far. I wrote this AGES ago, but I do have some interest in picking it up again eventually. After I fix it. It needs a lot of fixing. :D


Okay, I actually had this posted before, but the chapters kept getting screwed up. Then it accidentally got deleted, but no loss, right? So I'm re-posting it. It's a pretty way-out-there AU kinda thing. A cross between Star Trek and Star Wars (MAJOR spoilers if you haven't been reading the books, though I did mess with the timeline anyhow), with mostly my own unique characters. I have more than this, but I need some filler before I jump to the end of the story.  
  
Disclaimer: if you recognize it, it's not mine. if you DO recognize it, it IS mine. quite a simple concept, isn't it?  
  
Chapter One  
  
"One hour, tops." Hattie Bookman, all of 24 years old and proud to serve as a Starfleet captain, but bored to death of short missions, answered her commander in a flat monotone. Hattie was beautiful, with long golden hair in a high ponytail, hazel eyes, and a tall, strong complexion, but she couldn't care less for looks. She liked reading, writing, drawing, playing the piano, and taking risks, and hated being sent on dumb missions like inspecting the stations that orbited a temporally active nebula. She had a tough, well-trained, adventure-hungry crew that worked perfectly with her, and she wanted to do something. Unfortunately, Hattie could not disobey a Starfleet officer, especially one that outranked her. So she took her assignments and lived with it.  
  
"Something tells me this isn't exactly what you had in mind when you asked for a different assignment. I'm sorry, Hattie, but we're at peace and there isn't a whole lot for the fleet to do. Just be patient. Things are definitely heating up with the Bomarins. If those slimy reptilian excuses for intelligence don't learn how to play fair, everyone will get more than their share of problems. Okay?" Hattie's commander, Jonathan, was kind and tried to be fair with everyone. Hattie was lucky to have him as her superior. He was in his mid-thirties, dark brown eyes and hair, and always had a playful/serious expression that made him easy to like and hard to argue with.  
  
"Okay", Hattie answered, her angry mood almost completely dispelled by Jonathan's peacemaker charm. "I'll check back to you when we leave the dock and when we get back. See ya." Jonathan nodded and signed off. Hattie shut down her computer terminal and huffed to herself. Great, another wasted day. Better get going girl; you've got an hour. She walked out of her quarters into the hallway. Still grumbling, Hattie joined with her first mate, Kebitsah, on the way to the bridge.  
  
"I take it we've got ourselves another risk free, action free, adventure free, and perfectly boring assignment." Kebitsah said. He was a Vulcan, but by their standards he was irrational, crazy, and undisciplined. By Hattie's standards, he was the bounciest, funniest, most optimistic person she had ever met. This was basically impossible, since every other Vulcan in existence was very calm and solemn. Kebitsah simply hid all that inside himself. He was very good at telling what people were thinking and feeling, and even more so with the crew of Hattie's ship, the Journey. "It's such a pity there isn't anything to do. I was hoping to get some excitement worked into today's schedule." He was 23 years old, acted like he was 18, and looked like he was 40.  
  
Hattie grunted and tried not to smile as she punched him in the shoulder. "Get the bridge crew set up fast. This one's a race. We've got one hour to inspect three stations around Crella's Nebula and make it back to dock. Let's see if we can set a new record!"  
  
____________  
  
Crella's Nebula was the mistake of all mistakes, the anomaly among the anomalies of the universe. Few things compared among nebulas, but this one went just a bit too far. It contained several black holes, a star and a wormhole in its center. The wormhole rotated around the star like a planet. It moved erratically on the other end, so that you never knew where or when you would pop out if you got sucked in. The black holes would form when a star died, then they would suck up some of the vast nebula, before bursting and creating a new star, at which point the old star, buffeted by the storm of the new star's birth, would collapse. Thus the nebula was a permanent decoration in space. The nebula itself was a dangerous neighborhood for small ships, as it was unstable to the point of impossibility. The larger the ship, the better it withstood the wild wind tantrums and shifting gas currents and sudden electrical storms of the giant, blood-red nebula. Usually, a ship the size of the Journey would have no problem getting through. Usually.  
  
____________  
  
The bridge of the Journey was like the town square of a city. All problems were reported and solved, all discoveries looked over, and all solutions and reports were read and heard in the bridge of the massive ship. It had nine rotating stations placed in a circle around the chairs of the captain and first mate. The walls were like those of any normal ship up to about shoulder height. From then on came a transparent dome that was supported by metal bars in a simple spiral pattern. It was not glass or plastic made, but a metal made to be see-through yet tough. When the hull armor was activated, the view of space dimmed, but was still viewable. Any image could be displayed on the dome, but this rendered the actual view invisible.  
  
The normal bridge crew consisted of the highest-ranking officers in each of the eight main ship's systems, plus one officer for general operations, not counting the captain and commander. Starting at the front of the bridge, going clockwise all the way around and then to the center, here is the bridge crew: Navigation, Tai T'pa, female human, 18; Engineering, Miral Paris, female human-Klingon, 19; Life Support, Four Ten, male human, 20; Computer Database, Alexandra Erickson, female human, 19; Communications, Jake Erickson, male human, 22; General, James Erickson, male human, 22; Automatic Functions, Nine Ten, male human, 42; Astrometrics, Seven Ten, male human, 21; Security, T'meni Sek, female Vulcan, 20; Captain, Hattie Bookman, female human, 24; Commander, Kebitsah Ebitu, male Vulcan, 23. (Hattie sits to the left, Kebitsah to the right, similar to the Voyager.)  
  
___________  
  
Kebitsah was a good commander. Within two minutes of Hattie's arrival to the bridge, the rest of the officers were there. T'meni reported a full crew, prepared for departure. Four checked in with all provisions loaded and all decks airtight. Miral, who had come directly from engineering, nodded to report all systems go. Tai said that the helm was being touchy, but that she had compensated for the time being.  
  
"Jake, connect us to ground control Commander Jonathan, please." "Yes, ma'am." Hattie liked her crew. "I have the Commander on line." Jonathan's face appeared on the dome with his office in the background, replacing part of the starscape that was forever a part of the bridge. "Leaving, Hattie?" Hattie nodded. " I thought you'd like to know, the record for this run is exactly one hour and twenty-eight minutes. See you in an hour!" Hattie laughed as he signed off. "You heard him, Tai! Let's get going and maybe we'll have some fun after all!"  
  
It took about ten minutes at warp five to reach Crella's Nebula. Even without plotting a course, anyone who initiated a jump to warp speed in the direction of the nebula would be pulled out of warp by the failsafes. The safety features of a warp drive would not allow a ship to run through a star or any other such weighty thing just because the driver didn't say to. And Crella's Nebula definitely counted as weighty.  
  
There were three stations studying Crella's Nebula. The first was outside the nebula, and regulated all traffic and goings-on around and about the nebula. All to be done there was to have Jake send over a code so that the robot station would empty its databanks into the Journey's computer and except an energy charge. The Journey accomplished this in a record six minutes. The second station was inside the actual nebular gas cloud, its job, to monitor the gases, electrical charges, currents, windstorms and pulses of the strange nebula, record all information, and graph the weather inside. It too needed a code transmission, but required a cable connection to transfer information. This station was the hardest to get at, because in order to get the information, the tether had to stay jacked into the station, leaving the pilot with limited maneuverability. The last station was tethered to the wormhole itself, taking readings on all the points that the wormhole ejected at and recording them to find any possible pattern. The station had been at it for twenty years and had as yet discerned no readable pattern. The record time for travel was ten minutes there, eleven minutes back, and twelve minutes on the first station, thirty-five minutes on the second station, and twenty on the third.  
  
The Journey got her first taste of trouble when she entered the nebula after completing her run on Station1. The compensation that Tai made on the helm appeared to have worn off at a very wrong time indeed. Also, the currents of the nebula seemed more strong and unpredictable than usual. "Captain, the helm is fighting me. We're veering into the center before we should." Tai's voice was calm and strong. She was content knowing that Hattie was the Captain and trusting that her leader would handle the problem. Hattie was proud. "Miral, can we draw any more power from the warp dive?" "I already did, but there wasn't much of an effect. We could take some power from the sensors since they're offline." "Good idea, lieutenant. Seven, redirect the power from the sensor array into the warp drives please. Tai, which way should we be heading?" "More to starboard, and a little up. This current is definitely heading toward the center of the nebula and it gets stronger the closer we get. I'm not sure I can hold it." Her voice was a bit strained as she fought the controls to get the ship back on course. "James, is there any more power we can draw from somewhere else to increase the helm strength?"  
  
Before James could tell her anything, the whole ship lurched, and even through the artificial gravity Hattie could tell they were spiraling completely out of control. Tai had lost control over the helm; in fact, she had lost consciousness, and it looked as though neither of the previous would be regained anytime soon. About half of the ship's crew was probably in the same state, and that was not good. It appeared as though they had arrived at the nebula at the moment that it had chosen to re-star itself. The new star appeared in the view of the dome as Journey's wild ride ground to a halt. Journey, however, continued to drift forward, toward the old star. Hattie had a bad feeling about that, but there was nothing she could do save to strap herself in and issue red alert to the crew.  
  
Then the star collapsed. It was a brilliant show of color, all orange and yellow, until the matter was suddenly sucked into a void and was no more, but Hattie had no time to appreciate it in light of what happened to the wormhole that had circled the old star. The rip in space had gone wild, dragging Station3 all over the hollow in the nebula. Eventually it would locate and anchor itself to the new star, but Journey was not privileged with seeing this. The wormhole came up to slap her in the face, Journey gave a mighty jerk, and Hattie's world went black.  
  
Chapter Two  
  
When Hattie awoke, she found herself in sickbay, being looked over by the AEMH medical hologram named Doccie (nickname for Doctor). Doccie held the image of a middle-aged woman with dark brown hair and eyes. She was kind, considerate, and soft-spoken, and had long since earned the respect of the entire crew. At the moment, she was patching up a long and nasty looking cut on Hattie's forehead.  
  
"What happened?" Hattie asked. She sat up and immediately regretted it. "No one seems to know. Everyone near a viewport was either unconscious or busy when whatever it was happened. I've treated basically everyone onboard; all anyone can remember is a big lurch and then we were here. Wherever here is. I've been offline since yesterday. I checked the database just a little while ago, but the computer has absolutely no clue what happened." "Why is there no one else here?" Hattie had a sinking feeling about this whole thing. She hoped she was just paranoid.  
  
"I already treated everyone else. James said I should let you sleep awhile if you didn't wake up on your own. You should thank him; he seemed very concerned. He's the one who got you to sickbay." Hattie's heart fluttered in her chest. "That was sweet of him, but I need to find out what happened to my crew and my ship. They're more important than I am. I'll tell him, though." The two of them were silent until Doccie finished cleaning Hattie's forehead. Then Hattie asked "Where are the officers, do you know?" " On the bridge, I believe. Don't overexert yourself, though. You lost a lot of blood." Hattie nodded and rushed for the door, but caught herself and slowed down. Calm down, girl; it can't be that bad. I've got a good crew; someone will have an idea as to what happened, at least a better idea than what I think has happened. She slowly made her way to the bridge, asking everyone she met if they knew what had happened to Journey. No one had seen any thing except blue and white light rushing at him or her and then nothing, except for one Astrometrics ensign, a tall young brown- haired girl.  
  
She stuttered at the question, and then said, "I- I think the wormhole got us. I'm not sure, but I remember seeing the wormhole come right up to the bulkhead. Then the- the ship lurched, and we were in the wormhole! I didn't get hurt or anything; I strapped myself in a chair next to the viewport and watched until I fell asleep; it took hours. The Journey went through a tunnel of blue and white light. Once she stopped and the light turned black so that I almost couldn't see it, but then it came back and we started moving again. That's about when I fell asleep. I- I tried to stay awake, really I did, I knew it was important to see it, but- but I couldn't. I'm sorry." The girl was near tears, her voice barely audible. "Am I in trouble?" "Of course not!" Hattie exclaimed. "I've been looking for forever for someone who knew something, anything, about what happened to Journey. Do you think you could come to the bridge with me?" "Really? I could go to the bridge? And I'm not in trouble? You're sure?" The girl was ecstatic, completely shocked by Hattie's invitation. "Sure!" Hattie said, "on two conditions. First, that you finish or excuse yourself from any occupations that you have for the next 24 hours, and second, that you tell me about yourself and everything you were doing when the Journey went into the nebula." The girl practically burst with joy. She took Hattie to the Astrometrics lab, where she talked to a lieutenant for a while. Then the lieutenant nodded to her and called to another ensign, supposedly the girl's replacement.  
  
The girl's name, as Hattie soon discovered, was Hallie. She was 16 and learning to be an artist and a pianist. Hattie and Hallie had a lot in common. They had read the same books, played the same songs, attended the same piano concerts, and gone on the same secret adventures in school. By the time they reached the bridge, fifteen minutes after they met, they were good friends.  
  
They entered the bridge at the starboard door, and Hattie paused to look out while Hallie stopped dead to look up. Hattie saw her faithful bridge crew working away, coffee cups and datapads everywhere. Hallie saw the stars. But they were different. Tai had set Journey to drift in a lazy circle until they fixed everything and the captain decided what to do. (No one thought for an instant that they would all decide together and out rule the captain; they would come up with whatever they could, and of all the possibilities they had, the captain would chose the best.) Hallie looked carefully at the stars that she could see through the enormous dome as she scoured through all the starcharts she had memorized. She had no clue where she was. None of the constellations matched even halfway with the ones she had studied. Hallie didn't even notice when Seven, the ranking officer of Astrometrics, walked up to her. Seven was 21, with short brown hair and green eyes. He tapped Hallie on the shoulder to get her attention.  
  
"Hmm, um- what? Oh, I'm sorry sir, I didn't see you! I was just looking at the stars, and I couldn't help but notice, we're not in any of the charted areas, are we sir?" "Very bright conclusion, and, unfortunately, correct. Being the senior officer, it is my responsibility to know every chart of our galaxy. I must confess, I do not know our location." Seven talked with the usual Borg monotone, but his face revealed some of his worry. Hattie brought everyone together at her platform and asked each person for a status report on his or her part of the ship. It was apparent to Hallie that the bridge crew had expected and prepared for this question. They said their piece, big information first, opinions second, and notes third. Their control and the respect they gave to their captain awed her. Hallie's own reports were, at best, muddled and difficult to understand. But the bridge crew gave everything clearly without a hint of emotion in their voices.  
  
"At ease". Hattie said. Everyone exploded into conversation. There seemed to be three different opinions as to exactly what had happened to Journey and her crew. Seven, Tai, Miral, and James thought that they were in a completely new galaxy. Jake and Nine thought that they were just crooked and if they drove for a bit they would find out where they were. Finally, Alex, Four, and Kebitsah thought they were in some unexplored part of the Delta Quadrant. Hattie stood to one side with Hallie (Hallie was grateful, she did not want to wade into a conversation with officers that could send her to the brig without notice.) until the talk ran down to respectful silence. "Now, would all of you tell me what you think happened to us, and I want every possibility you can think of, and then Hallie and I will tell you which one we support and why." If what their captain said at all shocked, surprised, or otherwise affected the ten other people in the room, they didn't show it. Instead, Miral, Jake and Alex stepped forward to give their opinions clearly and rationally while the captain recorded them on a datapad. Then she had Hallie look over them and tell her which ones she thought most likely. Hallie picked first the 'new galaxy' opinion, then the 'Delta Quadrant' opinion. Hattie nodded to her and smiled ruefully. "I was afraid you'd say that." she murmured, then cleared her throat. "Hallie and I have decided that the most likely thing that happened was that the wormhole threw us into a different galaxy." There was dead silence on the bridge as this information sunk in. "Unfortunately, I can offer to you a convincing base to my logic. Hallie saw some of what happened after Journey was jerked into the center of the nebula." Then to Hallie she said, "Please tell them in great detail exactly what you saw from the time the ship was caught in the current."  
  
When Hallie had finished, the bridge was once again silent as a grave. T'meni had her head in her hands and her shoulders were shaking, and Kebitsah sat down to comfort her. James' face was grim with certainty as he joined his twin brother and his sister on the ledge of his platform. Seven muttered to himself that everything was explained, and Hallie silently agreed. She was proud that they believed her, but wished by all that was good that they could somehow prove her wrong. For such a prize crew, the impact was startling, but it might have something to do with the fact that no one trying to leave the home galaxy had survived, and no one had any clue as to how to get between galaxies or get back to their own. It just wasn't the done thing. Who knew how long it would take to get back or if Journey could make it back at all?  
  
"Well," said Kebitsah at last, "I suppose I'll broadcast to the crew. Unless anyone has any objections?" "I wish I could object," Hallie murmured. " But if we really are in another galaxy, then there's no point in objecting, is there?" "No". Seven said.  
  
Chapter Three  
  
Since Journey was in uncharted space, Hattie decided to keep her at sublight speed unless they were in an emergency. The journey would be a lot longer that way, but shortening it by running into a star was not a happy thought. The safeties would cut them out before they hit a star, of course, but the velocity a ship acquired from traveling at warp speeds would shove Journey through before the pilot could stop her. And since this was a new galaxy, there were all kinds of things that could be here and not in the home galaxy. So Hattie was willing to take her time, at least for a while.  
  
The first problem they encountered was a probe of some sort. When T'meni tried to destroy it, it disappeared. But this wasn't the kind of disappear one got when one jumped to warp, leaving, in the beginning, a trail of oneself. The little thing just popped, right out of sight. Alex and Seven reported later that day that the thing had initiated an engine of some unknown type, but that it had definitely gone to report to its makers. "Alright then, Seven, whenever your not using the sensors to map the stars around us, I want you to keep your eyes peeled for more ships. Got that? T'meni, I want you to pick one of your seconds and start getting them some serious training on pinpoint shots. If we ever find another one of these things, I don't want to miss a chance at a shorter way home because my best gunner is on off-watch. Dismissed." Hattie sat thinking as everyone left to do his or her job. She didn't notice that James was still in the room until he sat down next to her.  
  
"Hey, Hattie, are you sure we shouldn't just let the thing report to its owner that we're here? If the people here are friendly, then shooting up their guard dogs is a bad idea." Hattie smiled. "Did you know, lieutenant, that when Janeway was in the Delta Quadrant, she tried to make friends with the natives in the beginning, and she ended up with two dead crew members? I don't know what's out there, but I'd rather be prepared to meet it than not. But, just for luck, your concern is noted." Hattie smiled again. "And by the way, James, Doccie told me that you got me sickbay when we came to this mud hole last week. Thanks." Hattie could have sworn he blushed down to his toes. "Well, uh, I just, that is. it was nothing." "I'll see you next shift, then." Hattie said as she left for her quarters.  
  
Three Days Later  
  
"All senior officers, report to the bridge. This is a red alert. We are under attack. I repeat. All."Damn, Hattie thought as she raced from her quarters, Kebitsah's voice pounding in her ears, I hate this galaxy. Right in the middle of off-watch too. She raced onto the bridge and up to her chair. When she was safely seated, Hattie looked up.  
  
A ship of some unknown design was approaching Journey slowly, firing green bolts of something that was definitely not phasers at Journey's shields with little effect save a slight misbalance in the deck. The ship was long and spidery like a dying flower with the petals drooped down next to the stem. The engines were situated in the part where the spikes joined the main tube of the body, behind the spikes' protective metal plating. There were weapons emplacements visible on the other side of the spikes, and on the nose area of the ship. The ones on the nose fired some type of torpedo, also ineffective.  
  
All of this Hattie took in in a glance. "T'meni, their weapons don't have much effect on us, so lets see how it works the other way around!" T'meni took aim at a gun emplacement and let loose. An electrical charge appeared above the gun, supposedly the shield of the enemy collapsing. "Fire, T'meni!" The weapon exploded, at the same instant that the bolts from the enemy turned slightly yellowish. The ship was loosing power. Several people talked at once as the com began to screech furiously. "Tai, evasive! T'meni, keep firing!" Hattie shouted. "Our shields are dropping steadily!" Four reported. "We're being hailed! I've adapted to their way of communicating!" Jake said "Tai, pattern Alpha Gamma One Four! Put it onscreen, Jake!" Hattie could finally hear herself as Tai put to use the fact that all but one of the enemy's gun emplacements had been vaporized.  
  
A large image appeared on the dome, of a species that, obviously, Hattie had never seen before. A giant reptile-like creature began beeping and whistling furiously at her. It then motioned forward a young girl that choked out a translation over her fear. "Fi'shir'riung, the mighty general of the Ssi-Ruuk navy, would ask why you are intruding upon the marked space of the Ssi-Ruuk. Truces have been made with the Hidden Republic, the New Republic, and the Yuuzhan Vong. Our territories are our own." "Please tell your general that we were put here against our will and are trying to get home. We don't mean to intrude. If we can make a truce, then we will be on our way." Hattie told the girl. She wondered how the girl would communicate her message to the lizard beings, when suddenly the girl turned and held a long conversation with the V-crested red reptile behind her, screeching and whistling shrilly. After a moment of silence on the part of the girl, she turned back to Hattie. "You are unfamiliar with the Ssi-Ruuk ways. They would entech you all if they got half the chance. When you come aboard do not look into their eyes or touch your skin, do not eat or drink anything, and do not separate your group for any reason. If you do not follow my advice, you will die." She paused, taking a labored breath. "My name is Deketa. I will be your translator. We will rendezvous at Mechis 33, the moon of the largest planet in the system two light-years from here. If you do not know the way you may follow at sublight speed, twelve thousand kilometers to the port bow of our ship, the Hep'shi'ri. That is all for now." Deketa's image vanished from the dome to be replaced by the view of the spikeship turning toward a dot of light in the near distance.  
  
"Tai, follow the Hep'shi'ri" Deketa said. I want to see Kebitsah, Miral, Seven, and T'meni in the briefing room." Hattie hesitated, thinking. "That's all. Everyone stay sharp." The four officers she had asked for followed her out and substitutes took their places. As they walked she talked to them. "Kebitsah, what was that girl thinking, do you know?" "She was scared out of her wits and hoping to be rescued, but she would rather stay than have us risk ourselves and be. enteched." Hattie was no ace at character judgement, but she had guessed something similar to what Kebitsah had. The others joined in the conversation. "The question is, can we do it? And should we?" asked T'meni. "I'm sure we can take the Hep'shi'ri, but I doubt the 'Ssi-Ruuk' will keep Deketa alive once they realize that she's the prize we want." That was Miral. "Making a truce with these Ssi-Ruuk is an excellent way to learn more about this galaxy, and the three parties that the Ssi-Ruuk general mentioned, but rescuing, or capturing, Deketa will also accomplish this and Deketa is sure to be more hospitable to us." Seven said. "Then it's agreed, that we rescue Deketa?" Hattie asked. Everyone said aye, so Hattie said, "then the topic of this meeting is how to do it!" At last, some action!  
. . . . . .  
  
"Well, the classic ways were never proven wrong, eh?" Hattie asked when they finished the briefing. "Everyone knows what to do?" They did.  
. . . . . .  
  
At 1400 hours the negotiations began. They were above the moon Mechis 33. Hattie had Seven's substitute scanning the system, recording everything she could get. Hattie, T'meni, and Seven went to the spikeship, but in a more conventional way than transporting. They took a shuttle.  
  
Deketa and Fi'shir'riung met them when they got off the shuttle. The three of them were scanned (Hattie had to shake her head furiously to prevent T'meni from breaking the guards' arms.) and passed after a scuffle about whether Seven would be allowed to come or not. Fi'shir'riung waved his claws at the guards and hooted at them to let Seven through (Deketa translated), and Hattie breathed again. Seven had to come with them. The plan would be a total failure if he didn't get to talk to Deketa. Fortunately, it looked as though he would get the chance. Deketa was hanging back behind all of them. Seven stopped so that he too would be behind. Deketa hesitated when she saw him stop, then went up to him. They conversed for a moment, then Seven came up to her. "If I give her the chip now, the lizards will most likely find it. The best thing would be to have Journey attack as soon as the negotiations are over. As soon as the attack is underway, I will give her the chip." Hattie looked at Deketa, giving her a once over and thinking. Then she nodded. Deketa nodded back and came up to stand next to Fi'shir'riung.  
  
In a few minutes they reached the meeting room, but by that time Hattie had told James and T'meni about the change of plans. They entered to see several lizards seated in nests of some kind, arranged in a circle. As directed, Hattie, T'meni, and Seven were careful not to look in the eyes of the Ssi-Ruuk. When they were offered food, they refused, saying that they had just eaten, but thank you anyway. The meeting began.  
  
"Why are you here?" Deketa translated. Well, if the lizard wanted to be blunt, then let him. "We don't want to be here. We came against our will and we are trying only to get back home. We don't want to fight anyone." Hattie hoped they would buy it. It was a little stretched, but it was true. "How can anyone in this galaxy not want to fight? And why would your enemy dump you somewhere instead of kill you? Ah, but they hoped you would be enlightened by us. And yet your ship is not marked as any of the groups we know are. Who do you support?" Lots of questions there, Hattie noticed. She also recognized the fact that they said 'enlightened' instead of 'enteched'. Well, one at a time, then.  
  
"We're not familiar with any of the groups here. We- well, as unbelievable as it sounds. we're from another galaxy. We came here by accident and we're trying to get back, but we're not sure how, and we'd like help." It was a big risk, that, but they wouldn't get anywhere lying, and maybe these lizards were more friendly than they seemed. Hattie just hoped they didn't attack; she wasn't armed. T'meni and Seven were specialists at self- defense, but Hattie had taken only two courses at the academy. "This is most interesting." Deketa translated. She was struggling not to stutter while she talked. Her eyes were big as dinner plates and she was nodding her head, almost imperceptibly. "They will entech you for sure." She continued in the same voice as though she were translating. "You must act now."  
  
Hattie folded her hands in her lap. She wanted to stand up, but that would give the whole thing away. Hattie twisted her wrist slightly to the side and pressed a hidden button on her sleeve that was wired to a tiny transmitter. She hoped Jake got the signal quickly; she could literally see the muscles in Fi'shir'riung's tail and legs tensing. The spikeship rocked, just as green-scaled lizards leaped, Fi'shir'riung hissing gleefully as he extended his claws, unaware that his ship was going to blow.  
  
Chapter Four  
  
T'meni tackled Fi'shir'riung and dug her thumb into his neck. He gasped and slumped to the floor, but T'meni was gone, already on her third Ssi- Ruuk as Seven leaped to seal the door. The ship lurched again as he threw a transporter chip into Deketa's hand and tackled the last Ssi-Ruuk like an ox. This one was a guard and had had the time to prepare. He rolled and whipped his tail into Seven's face as T'meni jumped on his back. Just as he reached back to claw her, Seven stuck his thumb at a pressure point on his neck, paralyzing him from the neck down. Then, as he dropped, T'meni hit him on the head, knocking him unconscious. Hattie tapped her combadge and addressed Jake as the spikeship rocked hard and the conduit on the wall overloaded and showered sparks.  
  
"Four to beam up and get the hell out of here." Hattie yelled. Deketa's eyes widened in wonder as Hattie began to glow from inside like she had swallowed a blue light and brought it on slowly. Then she panicked as she and the three strangers began to dematerialize. But Deketa didn't have long to worry, because when her vision cleared of blue light, she was in another room. Hattie bolted for the door followed by her two friends. Deketa thought she was going to ram it, since Hattie didn't break her stride as she neared it, but then the door opened as she came close and held that way as the three strangers ran through. The younger woman stopped long enough to tell Deketa that they were heading for the bridge and not to be frightened, and Deketa would have to hurry if she wanted to come along.  
  
"I'm coming, but why are trusting me like this?" Deketa asked as she ran to keep up with the other woman. "I checked you when I came onboard your ship. Besides, Kebitsah's a pretty good face-reader. You'd be dead if we didn't trust you." The woman said back. Deketa recalled how gracefully she had dispatched with her hated masters, which were usually so hard to kill, and did not doubt that she spoke the truth. Then she did a double take on something else that the woman had said. "Are you a Jedi or something? As far as I know, they're the only ones who can read minds. But you're from a different galaxy! Or was that a bluff?" Deketa was thoroughly confused now. "That was no bluff, and I've never heard of Jedi. Slow down, this is the bridge." Deketa saw the other two strangers that had rescued her slow down as they reached a door. Then the door opened and they stepped through.  
  
"Wow!" Deketa had never seen such a view. Above her was a giant dome, slightly murky but see-through, obscured at one point by the image of the bridge of Hep'shi'ri full of roiling Ssi-Ruuk, whistling like a flute band at the people on this wonderful bridge. There were nine stations around the outside edge of the bridge, two of which, the ones on the upper-left side, were emptied at the approach of Seven, the man that had talked to Deketa on the Hep'shi'ri, and the other woman. The girl that came back from where Seven sat down motioned fiercely and dragged her towards the right of the door. On that wall, Deketa noticed several chairs that were empty and after them another door. As she sat down she saw that Hattie had gone to the platform in the center of the bridge and was yelling orders frantically.  
  
"You're not from Journey, are you?" The other girl asked. Without waiting for a reply, she went on. "I can tell, you know, 'cause you're not wearing a uniform and you're obviously not from the Federation. My name's Hallie and I'm Seven's substitute, from Astrometrics. We have to stay seated during red alert, but after we pound the lizards and go to warp I'll show you around and get you some quarters (this girl seemed to be somewhat impatient). If you stay you can have a uniform and you'll be in Astrometrics with me of course, but otherwise the captain (she gestured to Hattie) will drop you off as soon as we get to someplace safe. You'd probably be a lieutenant like me, and believe me it is hard to get to that rank normally." Deketa was barely listening; she was so occupied with watching. Staying would be nice, especially if she got to get views like these a lot. They could make her a slave or have her scrub the decks and Deketa wouldn't care because they had saved her from entechment. Well, she might care just a little, but they probably wouldn't do that; they seemed nice enough. Just then the whole dome turned blue as though they had made the jump to hyperspace, but it wasn't streaked with white like normal and after a second the view from the dome dropped back to black with the stars rushing by so fast the were a blur. The young woman in the for-most seat (Deketa guessed that she was barely out of her teens.) said: "Warp eight engaged, captain. The enemy is not pursuing." Other reports followed on its heels. "We have an air leak on deck five. it has been contained." "Minimal damage to shields and weapons. Torpedo banks have regenerated." "One wounded in engineering. He's been transported to sickbay, but he might not make it. Doctor says. he'll be okay." Deketa breathed again. "We're on a collision course with a star at oh-three seven point five off to starboard, but I don't know how far it is. There are no other obstacles in our path." Deketa knew that one. There was the only one possibility.  
  
"That's the Obroano-skaita system. Twelve planets, three of them inhabited, twenty-six moons, none of them habitable. If you're sure of those coordinates, that is. I saw your vector on the way out. As long as the grid coordinates are right, I can tell you exactly where you're going." There was dead silence for a heartbeat, and Deketa was afraid she had just uttered her own death sentence. Then Captain Hattie turned around to face her, very slowly, and said: "You're sure? Absolutely sure that that's the truth?" Deketa looked straight into those eyes and shivered in her heart, but she didn't show it on her face. "Yes, ma'am. That's true, I'll swear it on whatever gods you believe in, it's true." Then Deketa cried out in astonishment as the whole bridge erupted in cheers and Hallie had her in a bear hug. "We're going home!" she yelled down Deketa's ear. "Promise me you'll stay and help, please stay!" "Of course, what else could I do?" Deketa answered. 


End file.
